Posted on 01/22/2023 1:16:04 PM PST by george76
A Norwegian shipping company bans electric cars on its ferries. According to a risk analysis, such vehicles’ fire risk is too significant. An ocean liner had recently sunk because of it.
The Norwegian shipping company, Havila Kystruten, has banned electric, hybrid, and hydrogen cars from its ferries. After a risk analysis, it was concluded that the risk to the safety of the shipping fleet was too significant. If a vehicle catches fire, the fire can no longer be extinguished.
The risks for ships from the transport of Electric cars (EV) have been discussed since the “Felicity Ace” sank off the Azores, Portugal, last February. E-vehicles on board had caught fire. The fire could not be extinguished. Finally, the colossal ship sank with thousands of electric cars, including Porsche and Bentley “green” vehicles.
Capt. Rahul Khanna, global head of marine consulting at Allianz (AGCS), a marine insurance specialist, explains that the problem with EVs is that lithium-ion batteries in the cars can actually propagate the fire, igniting more vigorously as compared to conventional cars. A single vehicle fire could prove catastrophic.
E-cars are a danger for ship passengers..
According to a report by the TradeWinds shipping news service, Havila’s Chief executive Bent Martini said the risk analysis showed that the fire in an electric car required a particularly complex rescue operation. The crew on board could not afford this. Passengers would also be at risk. This is different for vehicles with combustion engines. A possible fire is usually easy to fight by the ship’s crew.
After the sinking of the “Felicity Ace,” Greenpeace also warned against e-cars on ships: “In general, electronic components and especially electric vehicles pose a risk for every transport.”
Havila travels the so-called mail ship route along the coast of northern Norway. The tours are essential for Scandinavian passenger and cargo traffic and are also very popular with vacationers.
I can envision engineers coming up with unique fixes. A new ferry designed to handle these fires. All EVs have to park in the bottom deck. The bottom deck is below the water line. Any fire automatically triggers the outside water to rush into the chamber. The fire may not be extinguished immediately, but it will not spread.
Or, all EVs are placed on a separate barge, connected to the back of the ferry, with only a cable connecting the barge to the ferry. If a fire starts, the cable is severed and the barge floats away from the ferry. If the other EV owners complain, they can be sent a catalog of the millions of cars they could purchase that do not need a barge (good ol gasoline automobiles).
How long before the usual suspects show up posting pictures of ICE cars on fire.
The average passenger car in Norway is driven less than 700 miles a month.
Charging is not nearly the issue in Norway as in the USA.
“Naah, by that time the ferries will be electric too.”
Hey, fireworks for free!
And these are people take risk assessment seriously, not for the ‘green’, homo or other social agenda.
Yup—property insurance companies are going to have lots of demands that will strangle the industry—it is just a matter of time.
They have it all wrong. We need to make the ferries fully electric so they have a fighting chance against the cars. Greta said so.
Actuaries are about as un-PC as it gets, when it gets down to their real business.
Norway generates a lot of electricity so they have been promoting EV’s.
That has got to be a financial hit for the ferry company to prohibit EV’s.
Ruh roh.
Your idea about the towed barge is a good solution.
Airline companies soon to refuse transporting EVs for same reason.
once everyone goes electric.
/\
Everyone is doomed once everyone goes electric.
.
Fossil fuel,
is civilization ,
Without it we have a stone age existence.
.
Have they and when will they be banned from US ferries? What about shipping to and from Hawaii and elsewhere overseas?
Someone put up a video here a few months ago showing an EV bus going up in flames while passengers were getting on board.
Your idea of a separate barge is a good one. I think I’d make the owners stay with them.
But water putting out a fire below the water line I don’t think is a good one. It takes 40 times the water to put out an EV as compared to a gas car. That quantity of water could sink the ship if all the cars caught before enough water could get to the one starting it.
Like some one else said, this is just another nail in the green coffin.
Electric Bus Caught Fire After Battery Explosion in Paris..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r-yN8SugWM
Electric bus bursts into flames, sets nearby vehicles on fire in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T71cVhxG_v4
We went to Beijing in April 2018 to visit my wife’s family. There was an EV graveyard that probably covered about 20 acres on the south side of the city. There was a road going through it that we walked on to get to the commuter train from the hotel we were staying at. There must have been a couple hundred electric busses crammed in there. There were piles of electric scooters and piles of charging stations in among the busses. There were electric cars that were staked in piles too.
One huge toxic waste dump.
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